One of the modus operandi of a con man is to constantly reaffirm his trustworthiness. That is how he prompts his marks to keep pouring money into his rigged game. Recently, billionaire investor and con man, Warren Buffet, said he does not think the stock market is a rigged game. This statement by one of the market's richest men is analogous to Vladimir Putin denying that there are Russian troops in Crimea. I am not saying that the average person can not make money on their investments in the market, only that the market movers like Mr. Buffet have rigged the game through their political connections and influence to insure their success.
Primary to my analysis of Warren Buffet is the image he and others have created of him as the king of the buy and hold strategy. This strategy says that if an investor buys stock in a company and holds it for many years, they will make money. This is true if the investor picks the right companies, however, Mr. Buffet does not even live by his own advice to others. Eighty percent of the stocks purchased by Mr. Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway are held six months or shorter, making Warren Buffet a trader eighty percent of the time and a long-term investor only twenty percent of the time.
Mr. Buffet's fraudulent persona is necessary to convince the average investor to zig when he and his cohorts are zagging. Evidence of this fact is that during the period between 2004 and 2007, when the market was hitting new highs every week, Mr. Buffet was putting very little money to work. Which in itself is not bad. But Mr. Buffet used his influence to constantly talk up the market to attract evermore new money into it. Once the market crashed in 2008-2009, Mr. Buffet started buying up the shattered dreams of average Americans who lost much of their life savings.
Buying low and selling high in and of itself is not corrupt. But Warren Buffet used his political connections with the Obama administration to profit. For instance, Mr. Buffet was able to wrangle a deal for preferred shares in General Electric Corporation after the share price had plummeted to $6 a share. This was after he was informed by the Obama administration that GE was going to receive billions in TARP bailout funds. Talk about insider trading!
Warren Buffet, again using his close connection to the Obama administration, was able to invest in Bank of America and essentially receive a dividend on his money, at the same time that federal regulators were denying such payouts to the average investor of BofA shares. This special treatment of the market's power brokers by government regulators is nothing new. Bernie Madoff bilked fifty billion dollars from investors, partly with the help of regulators turning a blind eye to his financial shenanigans. I am not comparing Warren Buffet to Bernie Madoff. However, the way in which government regulators lavished favorable treatment on both men because of their overwhelming statures in the financial markets, is in its process similar even if the outcomes are dissimilar.
Warren Buffet obviously is a shrewd man who has made himself and his shareholders very wealthy. And I am sure that he considers his actions, as fraudulent as they are, to be financially perspicacious. This is, after all, the mark of a good con man, i.e., to believe his own con.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Corporate Cash A Sign Of Failing Economy
The delusion of an improving economy was given further fuel yesterday with the release of the non-farm payroll number which showed that 175,000 jobs were created in the month of February. The news was reported as being "above analysts estimates," but those estimates were originally for 180,000 jobs added (still pathetic 5 years into a supposed recovery), and over the last two weeks had been lowered to 149,000. In this way, the free-falling economy can hide behind the veil of low expectations.
Anyone who doubts that the economy is in decline only has to examine the balance sheets of United States corporations. They are burgeoning with over 4 trillion dollars in cash. This record amount of cash on U.S. corporate balance sheets nosed out the previous record attained during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In both instances, the United States had presidents that took the reins of power during an economic downturn, and extended it for the purpose of imposing socialist policies. Franklin Roosevelt once quipped that the more he criticized business, the more votes he got. But FDR was a piker with regards to animus towards U.S. business compared to Barack Obama, as evidenced by corporate America's aversion to putting its cash into the sinking ship that is the Obama economy.
The Obama administration and others on the Left have demonized corporations for not spending their cash. But corporations are not entities which are sanguine about piles of cash on their balance sheets. They are about making money, and money makes more money when it is in motion, and not when it is statically sitting as cash on a balance sheet. Corporations would rather invest their money in their own businesses and others, if they thought they could make more money. Not doing so shows a lack of confidence in the economy. So it is not greed, as the Left claims, that keeps U.S. companies from spending their cash reserves, but fear.
The criticism of corporate America for not spending its cash is illustrative of the Left, who create a result by imposing their failed policies and then complain about that very result. The Obama administration has scared corporate America away from spending its cash through mountains of regulations that change on a daily basis, never providing any stability. The administration has also used its Justice Department to intimidate businesses into complying with some twisted notion of "social justice," further adding to fears about investing corporate cash.
Those in the financial world can delude themselves that the economy is improving by constantly lowering their expectations for it so they are never disappointed. But the piles of cash sitting in the coffers of corporate America tells a very different tale. A tale of business people who are afraid to fully participate in an economy that has become overrun by government bureaucracy and intimidation.
Anyone who doubts that the economy is in decline only has to examine the balance sheets of United States corporations. They are burgeoning with over 4 trillion dollars in cash. This record amount of cash on U.S. corporate balance sheets nosed out the previous record attained during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In both instances, the United States had presidents that took the reins of power during an economic downturn, and extended it for the purpose of imposing socialist policies. Franklin Roosevelt once quipped that the more he criticized business, the more votes he got. But FDR was a piker with regards to animus towards U.S. business compared to Barack Obama, as evidenced by corporate America's aversion to putting its cash into the sinking ship that is the Obama economy.
The Obama administration and others on the Left have demonized corporations for not spending their cash. But corporations are not entities which are sanguine about piles of cash on their balance sheets. They are about making money, and money makes more money when it is in motion, and not when it is statically sitting as cash on a balance sheet. Corporations would rather invest their money in their own businesses and others, if they thought they could make more money. Not doing so shows a lack of confidence in the economy. So it is not greed, as the Left claims, that keeps U.S. companies from spending their cash reserves, but fear.
The criticism of corporate America for not spending its cash is illustrative of the Left, who create a result by imposing their failed policies and then complain about that very result. The Obama administration has scared corporate America away from spending its cash through mountains of regulations that change on a daily basis, never providing any stability. The administration has also used its Justice Department to intimidate businesses into complying with some twisted notion of "social justice," further adding to fears about investing corporate cash.
Those in the financial world can delude themselves that the economy is improving by constantly lowering their expectations for it so they are never disappointed. But the piles of cash sitting in the coffers of corporate America tells a very different tale. A tale of business people who are afraid to fully participate in an economy that has become overrun by government bureaucracy and intimidation.
Friday, March 7, 2014
The Irrelevance Of Low Approval Rating
Some on the Right are given solace by a recent Fox News poll that shows President Obama's approval rating at the lowest level of his presidency, a George W. Bush-like thirty eight percent. And while some conservatives are gleeful over Barack Obama's low popularity, I am disappointed that they are seemingly clueless that, in the words of Hillary Clinton at her infamous Benghazi hearing, "What difference, at this point, does it make?"
My fellow conservatives, and others on the Right, must realize that Barack Obama is not running for anything again, so low poll numbers mean nothing. Some may say that with low poll numbers the president, any president, can not muster support for his agenda in congress. As he has so brazenly stated many times, President Obama does not need the support of congress to advance his agenda. Between the Affordable Care Act and Financial Reform legislation, he has the bones of a government monster that he can infuse with eternal life with the help of bureaucracies that now make laws. Add to this formula the president's unbridled willingness to use executive orders, and the democracy of Jefferson and Madison lies struggling for breath under the heavy boot of tyranny.
ObamaCare was passed by Democrats in congress as a 2,000 page behemoth piece of legislation, but has grown to over 20,000 pages with regulations added by the Department of Health and Human Services and other bureaucracies. Financial reform, also known as Dodd/Frank, has similarly been made obese by laws masquerading as regulations passed by bureaucrats and not by the people's representatives in congress, per the constitution. And if President Obama does not need congress, he certainly does not need the approval of the American people. So approval ratings and job performance reviews by the citizens of this country are completely irrelevant at this point in his tenure.
Another reason that low approval ratings for Barack Obama do not matter is that they virtually go unreported by the media. I remember during the second term of George W. Bush, when his approval rating dropped below forty percent, it was headline news every day in the main stream media. Which in itself is illustrative of media bias, disproving those who say there is none.
In the words of Aldous Huxley, it is a "brave new world." A world in which a community organizer slacker has "fundamentally transformed" a representative republic into a bureaucratic oligarchy. And far from being opposed and fought until the dying breath, this oligarchy has been joined by members of the "opposition" party who care more about poll numbers and elections than they do about girding their loins in the battle for liberty.
My fellow conservatives, and others on the Right, must realize that Barack Obama is not running for anything again, so low poll numbers mean nothing. Some may say that with low poll numbers the president, any president, can not muster support for his agenda in congress. As he has so brazenly stated many times, President Obama does not need the support of congress to advance his agenda. Between the Affordable Care Act and Financial Reform legislation, he has the bones of a government monster that he can infuse with eternal life with the help of bureaucracies that now make laws. Add to this formula the president's unbridled willingness to use executive orders, and the democracy of Jefferson and Madison lies struggling for breath under the heavy boot of tyranny.
ObamaCare was passed by Democrats in congress as a 2,000 page behemoth piece of legislation, but has grown to over 20,000 pages with regulations added by the Department of Health and Human Services and other bureaucracies. Financial reform, also known as Dodd/Frank, has similarly been made obese by laws masquerading as regulations passed by bureaucrats and not by the people's representatives in congress, per the constitution. And if President Obama does not need congress, he certainly does not need the approval of the American people. So approval ratings and job performance reviews by the citizens of this country are completely irrelevant at this point in his tenure.
Another reason that low approval ratings for Barack Obama do not matter is that they virtually go unreported by the media. I remember during the second term of George W. Bush, when his approval rating dropped below forty percent, it was headline news every day in the main stream media. Which in itself is illustrative of media bias, disproving those who say there is none.
In the words of Aldous Huxley, it is a "brave new world." A world in which a community organizer slacker has "fundamentally transformed" a representative republic into a bureaucratic oligarchy. And far from being opposed and fought until the dying breath, this oligarchy has been joined by members of the "opposition" party who care more about poll numbers and elections than they do about girding their loins in the battle for liberty.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
The Gaping Hole Of Ignorance
Liberty can hardly survive in an environment of ignorance. And when that ignorance is deliberate, it infects the very soul and weakens fidelity to the higher principles present in the United States constitution. We have witnessed the elevation of ignorance to the status of religious faith by those on the Left who now control not only our government, but the culture as well. It is this gaping hole of ignorance created by Leftist ideology that has been on full display during the current Russian/Ukraine crisis.
It is the gaping hole of ignorance that informs former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that it is Vladimir Putin who is delusional, and not the members of her cabal which have pushed policies in recent years that have strengthen the Russian Bear, while deluding themselves with a fascination for their own words. It is that same gaping hole of ignorance that motivates the current Secretary of State John Kerry to manufacture a 21st century world of non-aggression, and then expect the aggressive to mind his rules.
It is the gaping hole of ignorance that gives world Leftists comfort in the magic of the word "sanctions." It is this one word that sums up their entire foreign policy, and causes men like Vladimir Putin to laugh openly at their ineffectual and feckless attempts to play grown ups in the real world drama of geopolitical chess. It has been the gaping hole of ignorance that has motivated Barack Obama to dangerously reduce American nuclear arms, thinking that the rest of the world will follow, only to have Mr. Putin this very week test fire intercontinental ballistic missiles into the Caspian sea.
It is the gaping hole of ignorance that has swallowed intellectual elitists like Barack Obama, only to expel them into the spittoon of reality once their elitism has escalated strife and suffering throughout the world. They fail to understand that peace at all costs is always too high a price to pay when it consists of the borrowed liberty of future generations. Those on the Left that foolishly think they can propagate peace simply by weakening the ability of the United States to prepare for war, have only served the masters of war with their ignorance.
It is a nation's ability to conduct war which keeps its enemies from testing their resolve to do battle. Nothing deters war and insures peace better than overwhelming military strength. But it is the gaping hole of ignorance that keeps this truth from those on the Left and makes war and oppression more likely. I am not proposing that military intervention in Ukraine should be implemented by the U.S., only that the aversion to do so signals our Russian enemy that our commitment only rises to the level of peace pandering platitudes and italicized intellectual intimidation that spew from the gaping hole of ignorance.
It is the gaping hole of ignorance that informs former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that it is Vladimir Putin who is delusional, and not the members of her cabal which have pushed policies in recent years that have strengthen the Russian Bear, while deluding themselves with a fascination for their own words. It is that same gaping hole of ignorance that motivates the current Secretary of State John Kerry to manufacture a 21st century world of non-aggression, and then expect the aggressive to mind his rules.
It is the gaping hole of ignorance that gives world Leftists comfort in the magic of the word "sanctions." It is this one word that sums up their entire foreign policy, and causes men like Vladimir Putin to laugh openly at their ineffectual and feckless attempts to play grown ups in the real world drama of geopolitical chess. It has been the gaping hole of ignorance that has motivated Barack Obama to dangerously reduce American nuclear arms, thinking that the rest of the world will follow, only to have Mr. Putin this very week test fire intercontinental ballistic missiles into the Caspian sea.
It is the gaping hole of ignorance that has swallowed intellectual elitists like Barack Obama, only to expel them into the spittoon of reality once their elitism has escalated strife and suffering throughout the world. They fail to understand that peace at all costs is always too high a price to pay when it consists of the borrowed liberty of future generations. Those on the Left that foolishly think they can propagate peace simply by weakening the ability of the United States to prepare for war, have only served the masters of war with their ignorance.
It is a nation's ability to conduct war which keeps its enemies from testing their resolve to do battle. Nothing deters war and insures peace better than overwhelming military strength. But it is the gaping hole of ignorance that keeps this truth from those on the Left and makes war and oppression more likely. I am not proposing that military intervention in Ukraine should be implemented by the U.S., only that the aversion to do so signals our Russian enemy that our commitment only rises to the level of peace pandering platitudes and italicized intellectual intimidation that spew from the gaping hole of ignorance.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Obama and the Internationals Fail Putin's Test
Monday, world markets and others were solicitous over the Russian incursion into the Ukraine. Tuesday, the markets rebounded at an astounding rate. Western politicians were bruising their hands patting each other on the back and the "international community" breathed a collective sigh of relief. All this optimism is because of one word missed by these supposedly smart and worldly people in an otherwise conciliatory statement by Vladimir Putin. He said that there is "no need yet" to use Russian military force in Ukraine.
If you have not guessed by now, the all important word Putin used was "yet." Putin has left the door open for further military incursion into Ukraine, and in the mean time has tested the "international community" and President Obama's resolve to oppose him. Both have failed this test miserably.Without firing a shot, Vladimir has been able to learn much about the weakness of his enemy.
He knows for instance that the current president of the United States is so unlikely to use military force as to eliminate it as an option to prevent his rebuilding of the Soviet empire. He also knows that any sanctions imposed upon his country by Western powers will be made non-effective by his control of much of Europe's oil supply and a good chunk of American investments in his country. Mr. Putin has also learned that the hubris of his enemy is his best weapon against them. Barack Obama, John Kerry, et. al., will gleefully cede large chunks of territory to Russia if their rather large egos are made to believe that they have schooled the Russian president using their empty platitudes and "stern" warnings.
The Putin plan was simple; begin military exercises by the Ukraine border, invade the Russian-friendly Crimea region of the Ukraine, recall the Russian troops participating in the exercises thereby placating the "international community" and allowing him to keep Crimea. Vladimir Putin has telegraphed his next move, visible to anyone who is not wallowing in their own arrogance and self-aggrandizement like our president. Putin will negotiate to have Russian troops deeper inside the Ukraine, ostensibly to protect ethnic Russians trapped by what he has already called a coup that ousted his puppet, Viktor Yanukovych.
In this way he can continue to stroke the rather obese egos of the U.S. president and others, while he incrementally captures more of the Ukraine. He may, with any luck, be able to capture most of Eastern Europe in this way, especially if another Democrat is elected to the United States presidency in 2016. In the contest that is international politics, Vladimir Putin is Garry Kasparov and Barack Obama is a neophyte who has only just recently seen the board and pieces for the first time.
If you have not guessed by now, the all important word Putin used was "yet." Putin has left the door open for further military incursion into Ukraine, and in the mean time has tested the "international community" and President Obama's resolve to oppose him. Both have failed this test miserably.Without firing a shot, Vladimir has been able to learn much about the weakness of his enemy.
He knows for instance that the current president of the United States is so unlikely to use military force as to eliminate it as an option to prevent his rebuilding of the Soviet empire. He also knows that any sanctions imposed upon his country by Western powers will be made non-effective by his control of much of Europe's oil supply and a good chunk of American investments in his country. Mr. Putin has also learned that the hubris of his enemy is his best weapon against them. Barack Obama, John Kerry, et. al., will gleefully cede large chunks of territory to Russia if their rather large egos are made to believe that they have schooled the Russian president using their empty platitudes and "stern" warnings.
The Putin plan was simple; begin military exercises by the Ukraine border, invade the Russian-friendly Crimea region of the Ukraine, recall the Russian troops participating in the exercises thereby placating the "international community" and allowing him to keep Crimea. Vladimir Putin has telegraphed his next move, visible to anyone who is not wallowing in their own arrogance and self-aggrandizement like our president. Putin will negotiate to have Russian troops deeper inside the Ukraine, ostensibly to protect ethnic Russians trapped by what he has already called a coup that ousted his puppet, Viktor Yanukovych.
In this way he can continue to stroke the rather obese egos of the U.S. president and others, while he incrementally captures more of the Ukraine. He may, with any luck, be able to capture most of Eastern Europe in this way, especially if another Democrat is elected to the United States presidency in 2016. In the contest that is international politics, Vladimir Putin is Garry Kasparov and Barack Obama is a neophyte who has only just recently seen the board and pieces for the first time.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
It Aint Over Yet !
One thing that can assuredly be said about Barack Obama is that he lives a charmed life. Growing up as a child in the lap of luxury has not precluded him from claiming some kind of victim status with which the poor are inexplicably infused. His political career has taken him from the Illinois State House to the United States Senate, and onto two terms as president of the United States, all with little to no accomplishments or effort. And now, just when the weather has overstayed its welcome as the latest excuse for Obama economic policy failure, the Russians invade the Ukraine, and provide a poissible excuse for an economy in free fall.
Barack Obama knows that by the time the "international community" gets their act together enough to mount an effective counter to Vladimir Putin and his Russian military, the situation will have escalated to the level of causing, or at least appearing to have caused, economic weakness throughout the world. Once again the charmed president will be held blameless for his destructive policies.
Tuesday morning the world awoke with a smile because Putin pulled his troops off the Ukraine border where they were conducting military exercises unrelated to the recent occupation of Crimea. And while the Keystone Cops in the persons of Barack Obama and John Kerry congratulate themselves for "talking tough" and ostensibly scaring Vladimir Putin into submission, Mr. Putin is rubbing his hands together with glee. Not only has he taken a major port in Ukraine without expending military treasure, but he has given his buffoonish enemy reason to be over-confident and blinded to his ultimate goal of rebuilding the Soviet empire.
I think it was Rush Limbaugh who said, "The world is governed by the aggressive use of force." This truism can not be denied when one performs an exhaustive study of history. In the current situation, Vladimir Putin has set the rules of the game with his "aggressive use of force." The Russian president will now appear to retreat, with his latest conquest in tow, and wait for his next opportunity to seize control of more of Ukraine's sovereignty. He knows that he can continue in his march to rebuild the Soviet empire because of the aversion to war that the U.S. president and the "international community" possess.
Each time Vladimir seizes control of sovereign land, he will back off and allow his clownish opposition to huff and puff with hubris. And each time he will maintain control of the lands he seized. It is Barack Obama and the Lefts fear of war that makes it much more likely to occur. Whether it is the Ukraine, the Middle East, or South America, the spread of Soviet-style communism and influence has made a resurgence. We ignore the facts of history at our own peril.
Barack Obama knows that by the time the "international community" gets their act together enough to mount an effective counter to Vladimir Putin and his Russian military, the situation will have escalated to the level of causing, or at least appearing to have caused, economic weakness throughout the world. Once again the charmed president will be held blameless for his destructive policies.
Tuesday morning the world awoke with a smile because Putin pulled his troops off the Ukraine border where they were conducting military exercises unrelated to the recent occupation of Crimea. And while the Keystone Cops in the persons of Barack Obama and John Kerry congratulate themselves for "talking tough" and ostensibly scaring Vladimir Putin into submission, Mr. Putin is rubbing his hands together with glee. Not only has he taken a major port in Ukraine without expending military treasure, but he has given his buffoonish enemy reason to be over-confident and blinded to his ultimate goal of rebuilding the Soviet empire.
I think it was Rush Limbaugh who said, "The world is governed by the aggressive use of force." This truism can not be denied when one performs an exhaustive study of history. In the current situation, Vladimir Putin has set the rules of the game with his "aggressive use of force." The Russian president will now appear to retreat, with his latest conquest in tow, and wait for his next opportunity to seize control of more of Ukraine's sovereignty. He knows that he can continue in his march to rebuild the Soviet empire because of the aversion to war that the U.S. president and the "international community" possess.
Each time Vladimir seizes control of sovereign land, he will back off and allow his clownish opposition to huff and puff with hubris. And each time he will maintain control of the lands he seized. It is Barack Obama and the Lefts fear of war that makes it much more likely to occur. Whether it is the Ukraine, the Middle East, or South America, the spread of Soviet-style communism and influence has made a resurgence. We ignore the facts of history at our own peril.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Putin's Time
As was the prediction made by many observers of the growing tinder box in the Ukraine, Russian troops have this past weekend incurred into the sovereign lands of that freedom-loving country. The Crimean peninsula, which is located on the Black Sea in the South-Eastern part of the Ukraine, is currently being occupied by Russian troops, and the Ukrainian government has called upon its citizen army to prepare for war. Crimean bases and armories have been surrounded by Russian soldiers, and the fledgling Ukraine government is transmitting not so subtle messages to the United States and Great Britain that they may need help in stemming the Russian incursion before more of their sovereignty is gobbled up by a hungry Russian bear.
I fear that the Ukrainian pleas for help will tumble from the slight and ineffectual shoulders of President Obama and his administration. Beyond the platitudinous warnings and empty threats about the Russian violation of international law, Mr. Obama is ill-equipped, both ideologically and in intestinal fortitude, to meet the Russian Bear in the arena of courage and moral certitude. And Vladimir Putin knows, except for empty words and even emptier resolve, he will meet no resistance from the United States as he has his way with the Ukraine.
It is at once the worst time for the world, and the best for Vladimir Putin, as he tries to rebuild the old Soviet empire. Would he have felt as strongly about taking such a bold chance in the Ukraine if the United States was lead by a strong, virtuous, and liberty-determined president? We will never know. We do know that he has no fear, respect, or deference to the over-educated and under-experienced President of the United States. It is as if the Russian prime minister is playing chess and the American president is playing checkers. The complexities and strategies of world politics, let alone that of Russian/Soviet politics, is beyond the limited experience and arrogantly simplistic world view of Barack Obama.
I can not help but wonder when the moment was that Vladimir Putin knew Barack Obama was an unworthy adversary, and would provide only flaccid and vacuous opposition to Soviet aggression. Maybe it was before Barack Obama's re-election when he told Russian president Medvedev to transmit to Putin the message that after he, Obama, was safely re-elected, he would have more "flexibility" in dealing with the Russians. Or maybe Vladimir knew Obama was his when he was able to recently manipulate events in the Middle East to his advantage, making the U.S. president look buffoonish and amateurish.
The twentieth century has often been called, "America's Century." The prosperity, advancement in the human condition, and the value of liberty spread throughout the world by the United States in those hundred years is unequaled in human history. But I fear that the twenty first century is rapidly becoming Putin's time, when Soviet aggression will once again rule a large chunk of Eastern Europe. And the United States, under feckless leadership, will sit idly by, lacking the strength of both will and ability to honor the cause of liberty and fight under the flag of freedom.
I fear that the Ukrainian pleas for help will tumble from the slight and ineffectual shoulders of President Obama and his administration. Beyond the platitudinous warnings and empty threats about the Russian violation of international law, Mr. Obama is ill-equipped, both ideologically and in intestinal fortitude, to meet the Russian Bear in the arena of courage and moral certitude. And Vladimir Putin knows, except for empty words and even emptier resolve, he will meet no resistance from the United States as he has his way with the Ukraine.
It is at once the worst time for the world, and the best for Vladimir Putin, as he tries to rebuild the old Soviet empire. Would he have felt as strongly about taking such a bold chance in the Ukraine if the United States was lead by a strong, virtuous, and liberty-determined president? We will never know. We do know that he has no fear, respect, or deference to the over-educated and under-experienced President of the United States. It is as if the Russian prime minister is playing chess and the American president is playing checkers. The complexities and strategies of world politics, let alone that of Russian/Soviet politics, is beyond the limited experience and arrogantly simplistic world view of Barack Obama.
I can not help but wonder when the moment was that Vladimir Putin knew Barack Obama was an unworthy adversary, and would provide only flaccid and vacuous opposition to Soviet aggression. Maybe it was before Barack Obama's re-election when he told Russian president Medvedev to transmit to Putin the message that after he, Obama, was safely re-elected, he would have more "flexibility" in dealing with the Russians. Or maybe Vladimir knew Obama was his when he was able to recently manipulate events in the Middle East to his advantage, making the U.S. president look buffoonish and amateurish.
The twentieth century has often been called, "America's Century." The prosperity, advancement in the human condition, and the value of liberty spread throughout the world by the United States in those hundred years is unequaled in human history. But I fear that the twenty first century is rapidly becoming Putin's time, when Soviet aggression will once again rule a large chunk of Eastern Europe. And the United States, under feckless leadership, will sit idly by, lacking the strength of both will and ability to honor the cause of liberty and fight under the flag of freedom.
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